We pass now from the 3rd to the 5th of Klarmont (June).
I. Party Interviews One of Humankind’s Earliest Rebels (and then Someone Else)
The party finishes exploring Colony West. As one of its last acts as a post-Vssgon investigative team, it attempts to Find the Path to three sorts of people, all of whom are presumed to be (long, long) dead: a worshipper of Heaven’s Fang, a worshipper of Hinn, and a worshipper of The Boatman. Of these three attempts, only two yield fruit. Carrock starts by looking for a worshiper of Heaven’s Fang. In the ineffable trance of the spell, he leads the party out of Colony West and nine miles southeast to a treacherous slope covered with boulders and three rows of vaguely spike-shaped rocky protrusions that seem to be preventing boulders from rolling downhill. If one looks at the boulder field (or “boulder-slope”) from certain angles it almost looks like terracing. Carrock alights next to one nondescript boulder in the middle terrace and begins pushing at it, as though he’s trying to get to the ground beneath it. The other party members take the hint and consider how to help. After detecting danger and seeing no sign of trouble, they decide that this presents them a good opportunity to flex their recently-acquired muscles rather than waste spell power on grunt work. Carrock, Lackshmi, Al, and Efrim work together to lift the boulder and then, on the count of five, hurl it downhill. It rolls about thirty feet and then stops. They now stand on a patch of dry soil.
After some investigation the party figures out that it is standing atop a long, wide shaft with stone walls, one that was filled in and then buried by about four feet of soil in the years since it was made. The party uses one of its usual methods to move earth and create a breathable space underground. Their destination, it turns out, is about 190 feet below the surface. Some thumb bones are the first to be liberated from the soil. That’s enough for a Speak with Dead spell.
Carrock casts the spell and the image of a young woman rises up from the thumb bones. She is covered in grime. Her hair is soaking wet and yellowish water runs in rivulets down her arms, chest, and back. The party begins to ask their questions, but it becomes obvious rather quickly that she is deeply confused, dim–what people back on the Prime would call a halfwit. She says that she worships the “nice god” who “gives me leather fluffy things” and “shiny round food.” She can’t seem to recall that god’s name, but she describes him as mean, which contradicts the bit about him being nice. Then she says he’s like a wolf but nicer and with scales. She adds that he has teeth. At one point Carrock asks her if she has ever met this god, and she answers, “Oh, I met him many times before then.” Carrock is forced to follow up: “Before when?” Her answer: “Before I met him.”
And so goes the party’s first-ever encounter with one of humankind’s earliest rebels.
But I mentioned that two attempts to Find the Path yielded fruit. The second successful attempt was for a worshipper of The Boatman. It leads the party to exactly the same place. The party finds a jawbone and Carrock casts Speak with Dead.
The image of a young man rises up from the jaw. He too is covered in grime. His hair is also soaking wet and yellowish water also runs in rivulets down his arms, chest, and back. Carrock begins to ask questions. The discussion that ensues depends on what questions he asks…
(June 13, 2017)
A very helpful preamble.
> Also! Remember this?!
> Efrim uses the talking dagger, and finds weird stacks of ancient coins buried in the earth,
> and stacked in weird patterns. 10,9.8.7.6.5.4.3,3.4.5.6.7.8.10
> Al will run that pattern through his super brain and try to turn that stack pattern into planar
> coordinates or star charts. Granted, he’s not an astronomer. Really have no idea how that works.
> Will present it as a problem to the Nagpa with a 50,000 gold prize when we get back to the Prime.
Al gives it a try and can’t see any way to link it up with coordinates or star charts. So I guess it’ll have to go to one of the Catalonian prize-winning nagpas back home.
> QUESTIONS:
> 1. Were you killed because of your beliefs?
“Yes, and also because of my behavior.”
> 2. Why is your god called The Boatman?
“Because the faithful are not permitted to write or say his real name aloud. It can be shared with them telepathically, but no more. To know his name is to know a great secret to which only the faithful are privy.”
> ancient coins buried in the earth, and stacked in weird patterns. 10,9.8.7.6.5.4.3,3.4.5.6.7.8. 10
> We can ask the ghost about that. We surmised it was a sort of game or something? Or ritualistic offering?
He says that smart people sometimes leave messages for one another by stacking coins, the numbers of which are linked to secret codes.
> if they were mining something what was it?
They mined a variety of things. Gemstones, copper, bronze, and salt were the minerals that most interested the masters who ran Colony West.
(Questioning Continues…)
II. Returning to the Triumvirature
As you may recall, there are two ways out of Azure Sky. One is through a node at the bottom of a dried basin, which takes you to Humbawa’s Forest. The other is through a node in the far northeast of Azure Sky that would have you walking out of a great waterfall in the northwest corner of the Triumvirature. The Humbawa route is fast but dangerous. The waterfall route is safe but slow. As you may recall, travelling via the latter node has a unique and unpredictable “temporal suspension” effect. Travelers taking that route spend what feels like an hour or two in a dimly-lit, barren, and flat plain with visibility reduced by dust floating about. And then they emerge on the other side to discover that a great deal more than 1-2 hours have passed. Sometimes it’s a week; sometimes it’s a couple of months or a year; some stories suggest that it has been as much as 10 years.
Given the options, the party elects to take its chances with Humbawa. That ends up being the right choice. They step out from their gate onto an open hill with a few old trees at the top. Then they fly as fast as they can for the perimeter of the forest. As expected, Humbawa is aware of them and calls upon one of his powerful magical effects. But the effect he choses isn’t the blue-green comets, nor the magical dome of dispel magic, nor the mass confusion. Rather, he summons two gargantuan dragonflies, which then chase the party to the perimeter of the forest and then turn back, staying approximately 300’ behind the party the entire way. An easy escape.
The party then spends a day in the Triumvirature, doing as they please so long as they don’t find themselves getting in a great deal of trouble…